The Hungarian position is taken seriously in the fight against terrorism, György Bakondi, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s chief security advisor said in an interview given to the Hungarian news agency MTI in New York.

Mr Bakondi is attending the UN’s two-day counter-terrorism conference which began on Thursday. The conference is taking place with the participation of the heads of the counter-terrorism institutions and offices of countries, partially behind closed doors at the request of some attending states.

He said at the conference the world organisation will review the experiences of cooperation in the fight against terrorism to date. “It is true though that this discussion is about the future, new challenges which call for new solutions”, Mr Bakondi said, and stressed that terrorism had changed. It is a threat throughout the world, and terrorists are launching their attacks with ever more ruthless and brutal methods.

He also highlighted the connection between illegal migration and terrorism, pointing out that this in itself calls for new approaches in the fight against terrorism.

Regarding the work of the world organisation’s Office of Counter-Terrorism set up a year ago, he said that in addition to sharing the experiences gained in the fight and cooperation against terrorism, Hungary “urges the development of new solutions which could also work at the level of the world organisation”. In this context Mr Bakondi indicated that the exchange and processing of counter-terrorism information must be conducted with even safer methods than those used so far, and that the security and efficiency of information channels must also be improved.

He stressed that during informal discussions he concluded that “the Hungarian position is taken seriously, no one disputes our main findings, and they look upon Hungary as a partner in future cooperation”. Mr Bakondi added that at the conference he had the privilege to speak first among the representatives of European countries, and this, too, indicates Hungary’s prestige.

In answer to the question as to how effective the UN and its Office of Counter-Terrorism set up a year ago could be in light of the fact that this week the United States has withdrawn its promise regarding a donation of two million dollars for the organisation, Mr Bakondi stressed that “every solution is difficult at the level of the UN as many different national interests clash, and therefore we cannot hope for very specific results from the UN”. We can, however, hope, he added, that the most important experiences can be used and explored through the UN by virtue of the fact that the world organisation provides regular forums for the meetings and information exchanges of the counter-terrorism coordinators of the individual member states. The UN must find its role in this, and Hungary offers its assistance with this work, he said.

He also stressed that Hungary has a very firm position in the fight against terrorism, and while “we have serious disputes on issues of migration, we are taking part in all technical preparatory forums concerning the UN’s migration compact”.

Mr Bakondi highlighted that Hungary had not left the UN’s Human Rights Council as the United States did. “We will continue to fight as long as there is a chance to seek approval for the Hungarian position and the basic elements of the Hungarian government’s migration policy, and on this we have made progress”.

The security advisor stressed that the connection between illegal migration and terrorism is a sensitive issue, but in the fight against terrorism “there is no political – or if you like, ideological – opposition such as in the perception of migration”.

(MTI)